Liverpool fan found guilty of making monkey gestures at Patrice Evra during FA Cup clash and banned from attending matches for four years

Phil Gannon, 58, pictured arriving at Liverpool Magistrates Court yesterday, was found guilty of two counts of using abusive or insulting words

A Liverpool fan has been found guilty of hurling racist abuse at fans and players during a football match - after his actions were captured on live television.

Father-of-four Phil Gannon, 58, was caught on camera performing a racially offensive monkey impression during the FA Cup fourth round clash between Liverpooland Manchester United at Anfield on January 28.

Liverpool Magistrates’ Court today banned Gannon from attending matches for four years.

Gannon was also accused of hurling racist abuse at Patrice Evra during the game, the first between the Premier League rivals since an eight-match ban was imposed on Liverpool striker Luis Suarez after the FA found him guilty of racially abusing Mr Evra.

In the 23rd minute of the game the TV camera panned over fans in the lower Centenary Stand, where Gannon was sitting with two friends, and he was seen to position his hands under his armpits.

The coverage, broadcast worldwide by ITV, quickly spread across social networking site Twitter and complaints were made to police, the court heard.

Gannon, a carpenter and joiner from Heol Meirion, Barmouth, north Wales, repeatedly shouted abuse including ‘pikey b*******’ at opposing fans throughout the game, the bench was told.

He also shouted: ‘F*** off you spastic mutants’ in the direction of disabled supporters watching the game nearby, a witness said.

The court heard the offences were racially aggravated, despite Gannon’s claims that the 'monkey' gesture was a reference to 'cavemen' and that he never abused Evra in French.

Defending solicitor David Woods accused anyone who identified the gesture as racist as being racist themselves.He said: 'If you equate monkeys with black people then you are as racist as the person who is doing it.

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'By looking at the gesture in that way then you assume that someone is being racist.'The prosecution say it's a clear racist gesture and the defendant says it isn't as he was saying the Manchester United fans were cavemen in relation to their actions towards him.'

But the chairman of the bench, who declined to give his name, said they deemed it to be a monkey gesture, adding that it was 'clearly racist' and the bench also believed that Gannon shouted a racist insult at Evra in French when he came towards the touchline.

Scroll down for video.

Race abuse: Gannon making the racist monkey gesture during Liverpool's game against Manchester United

'There is no doubt that this was a racist remark,' he said.

Gannon sat about eight rows back from the pitch at the Anfield Road end of the Centenary Stand, the court heard, about 20 to 30 yards away from the Manchester United fans.

Gannon's friend, Malik Alam, who attended the match with him, gave evidence in his defence. Alam, of Asian origin, said: 'He was not doing a monkey gesture. He was doing a sort of caveman dance.

Rude gesture: Phil Gannon in his Facebook picture

'Phil is definitely not racist. He has black grandkids and wouldn't be friends with me if he was. 'I wouldn't stand for him saying anything racist or making any racist gestures, but I know he is not like that.'

Nevertheless, he was found guilty of two counts of using abusive or insulting words within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused alarm or distress.

Gannon, of Heol Meirion, Barnmouth, was made subject to a four year football banning order which prevents him from attending any soccer match in England or Wales.

He is also barred from from travelling to any town or city in England or Wales where Liverpool FC are playing a match, during a period four hours before the fixture, during the match and for four hours afterwards.